Isaiah 38:18-20 – Give God our prime not our residues

In Isaiah 38:18-20, we come to the last three lines of Hezekiah’s poem. The first of these three lines show us what he thought about death. His words showed how apprehensive he was then with the prospect of facing death. Especially when he was in the prime of his life. So here he was giving reasons wishing for God to spare his life from death in his prime. He was putting words into what he was musing then.

In saying that “…Sheol cannot thank You, Death cannot praise You; Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness” Hezekiah was not suggesting that at death the soul of a person would be obliterated. He was merely saying that when physical life ceases, one could no longer give thanks or offer praise to the Lord in the flesh. He further insisted that a dead person could no longer respond to God’s faithfulness. And it is true that only those who are physically alive can respond to God’s faithful dealings. But once a person has died, any hope of responding to God will be gone and one’s destiny will be sealed forever. As we think of what Hezekiah had said, it should motivate us to want to respond to God, to offer Him our best in the prime of our lives. Never give to God the leftovers of our lives. Listen to the words of Ecclesiastes 12:1 that says,  “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years approach when you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’”   

 

In verse 19, Hezekiah further asserted that only a person alive could teach his children to praise God and to respond to His faithfulness. This was something he did when God spared him from death. These are things we parents must emulate. We must never cease to teach our children to praise God and to respond gratefully to His kind overtures. These are our God granted privileges as parents.  

 

The last line of this poem ended with Hezekiah’s expression of confidence that the Lord will deliver him. Therefore, he and all his people would continue to praise God and sing to Him in the temple. This poem leaves us with the thought that death is everyone’s inevitable experience, no matter how robust we may be. The issue is what should we do while we still have the strength and vitality? The obvious answer is:- to  know God, give our lives to worship and serve Him. May the words of Horatius Bonar inspire us to do so:

Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God,
  In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
  Thy being and Thy ways.

Not for the lip of praise alone,
  Nor e’en the praising heart,
I ask, but for a life made up
  Of praise in every part:

Praise in the common things of life,
  Its goings out and in;
Praise in each duty and each deed,
  However small and mean.

Fill every part of me with praise;
  Let all my being speak
Of Thee and of Thy love, O Lord,
  Poor though I be and weak.

 

So shall no part of day or night
  From sacredness be free,
But all my life, in every step,
  Be fellowship with Thee.